1995/04/11 by Renu Malhotra · 13 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Planetary Science and Exploration #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/117532
14 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript file (including figures); to appear in the Astronomical Journal
arxiv created 1995/04/11 · openalex publication_date 1995/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The origin of the highly eccentric, inclined, and resonance-locked orbit of Pluto has long been a puzzle. A possible explanation has been proposed recently [Malhotra, 1993, Nature, 365, 819] which suggests that these extraordinary orbital properties may be a natural consequence of the formation and early dynamical evolution of the outer solar system. A resonance capture mechanism is possible during the clearing of the residual planetesimal debris and the formation of the Oort Cloud of comets by planetesimal mass loss from the vicinity of the giant planets. If this mechanism were in operation during the early history of the planetary system, the entire region between the orbit of Neptune and approximately 50 AU would have been swept by first-order mean motion resonances. Thus, resonance capture could occur not only for Pluto, but quite generally for other trans-Neptunian small bodies. Some consequences of this evolution for the present-day dynamical structure of the trans-Neptunian region are (i) most of the objects in the region beyond Neptune and up to ∼50 AU exist in very narrow zones located at orbital resonances with Neptune (particularly the 3:2 and the 2:1 resonances); and (ii) these resonant objects would have significantly large eccentricities. The distribution of objects in the Kuiper Belt as predicted by this theory is presented here.